Vikings hold off Greenville|[01/20/07]

Published 12:00 am Saturday, January 20, 2007

Warren Central’s boys and girls basketball teams survived a pair of last-ditch shots to pull out Division 3-5A wins over Greenville-Weston Friday night at WC.

The Vikings (11-11, 2-1) saw the visiting Hornets miss two free throws and three potential tying field goals in the final 25 seconds to hold on for a 67-64 victory.

In the girls’ game, Greenville-Weston’s Brianna Lewis saw her driving layup fall off the rim with 2 seconds left as the Lady Vikes escaped with a 60-59 win.

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WC coach Jesse Johnson saw his team nearly lose a 10-point lead with 2:30 remaining.

&#8220Fatigue set in,” Johnson said. &#8220We’re not that deep. Then Greenville started to hit some shots in the third and fourth quarter. They made some good shots.”

Hornets coach Marlon Dorsey said his team couldn’t close out the comeback.

&#8220We’re just too young. We’re trying to get ready for the district tournament,” he said.

The Hornets, who are 0-3 in the division, will host the Division 3-5A Tournament in February.

The Vikings had a 31-13 lead early in the second quarter but the Hornets rallied to cut it to eight at 38-30 when Eddie Williams drilled a half-court shot.

It was a sign of things to come. The Hornets made seven 3-pointers in the second half and when the shots didn’t fall, theycontrolled the boards. They out-rebounded WC 16-8 in the half and 28-21 for the game.

The Vikings, though, kept pace with baskets from Jeremy Smith, Shone Ester and Mario Luckett. Trailing 57-41, the Hornets cut it back to eight with four minutes to go. Luckett answered with a two-handed jam off an inbound pass for the final two of his 21 points on the night.

He fouled out with 1:01 remaining. Akeem Richardson and Williams each hit a 3-pointer to make it 66-62.

After Ester made one of two free throws for a 67-64 lead, the Hornets missed two straight 3-point shots before getting a foul with 2.3 seconds left. Nicholas Meeky missed both foul shots and on the long rebound, Nicholas Porter’s desperation 3-pointer was way high.

Roosevelt Banks led all scorers with 24 points. Williams finished with 14.

Ester had 17 points and six assists. Smith had 10 points in the first quarter before ending with 14 for the game.

(G) WC 60, Greenville 59

The Lady Vikes (17-4, 2-1) got 32 points from Sha’Kayla Caples but still needed Lewis to miss her last-second shot to stay in second place in the divisional standings.

&#8220I told them she was going to drive and we still let her drive right down the middle,” WC coach Donny Fuller said.

Lewis led Greenville with 15 points while Marchetta Parker and Carissa Jackson each had 10.